When André Breitenreiter Bashed Bayern

This weekend’s big Bundesliga match sees Schalke hosting runaway leaders Bayern Munich at the Veltins Arena with André Breitenreiter preparing to host the Bavarians for the first time as Königsblauen coach. He does however have a past against the Rekordmeister and a tale of when he got one over them.

We go back to the 1994-95 Bundesliga season when Hamburg travelled to the Olympiastadion in mid-September to face Bayern. HSV trainer Benno Möhlmann opted to hand a Bundesliga debut to 20-year-old attacking midfielder Andre Breitenreiter- a summer signing from Hannover 96- and his decision paid instant dividends.

On his Bundesliga debut, Breitenreiter scored his first goal to open the scoring in the 15th minute. Jörg Albertz, famed more for his hammer of a shot, this time played a sublime ball through for Breitenreiter and the current Schalke boss took care of the rest.

He cheekily nut-megged Lothar Matthäus before then coolly stroking his shot past keeper Oliver Kahn and into the back of the net off the post. Unfortunately for Breitenreiter, his goal was not enough to see the Hanseaten to three points against Bayern as a Matthäus penalty evened things up six minutes from time and the match finished 1-1. Even so, it was an impressive bow from the youngster.

The match also saw Breitenreiter substituted in the 58th minute when HSV were forced into a change when their keeper Uli Stein was sent-off for handling the ball outside his area.

He went on to score three further goals that season, but was used largely as a substitute with just ten starts for the Rothosen. He spent a further two seasons at HSV before joining Wolfsburg. His Bundesliga playing career didn’t really take off and he eventually moved on to both SpVgg Unterhaching and Holstein Kiel in the lower leagues.

Now back in the Bundesliga as a coach, Breitenreiter has the chance this weekend to get one over Bayern Munich once again. However, his record from last season’s efforts while coach of Paderborn don’t provide much in the way of encouragement with two losses and a goals record of none scored and ten conceded.

Mathew Burt

A year spent living in Bremen got Mathew hooked on the Bundesliga with regular visits to the Weser Stadion getting in the way of his studies. Back in the UK now, he still keenly follows the Grün-Weißen and German football in general. Follow him on Twitter @matburt74.

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